size and interest are: the national museum (1836–1844); the town-hall (1869–1875), in the early Renaissance style; the university, with a baroque façade (rebuilt 1900), and the university library (opened in 1875), a handsome Renaissance building; the palace of justice (1896), a magnificent edifice situated not far from the Houses of Parliament. In its neighbourhood also are the palatial buildings of the ministries of justice and of agriculture. There are also the exchange (1905); the Austro-Hungarian bank (1904); the central post and telegraph office; the art-industrial museum (1893–1897), in oriental style, with some characteristically Hungarian ornamentations; several handsome theatres; large barracks; technical and secondary schools; two great railway termini and a central market (1897) to be mentioned. To the south-east of the town lies the vast slaughter-house (1870–1872), which, with the adjacent cattle-market, covers nearly 30 acres of ground. The building activity of Budapest since 1867 has been extraordinary, and the town has undergone a thorough transformation. The removal of slums and the regulation of the older parts of the town, in connexion with the construction of the two new bridges across the Danube and of the railway termini, went hand-in-hand with the extension of the town, new quarters springing up on both banks of the Danube. This process is still going on, and Budapest has become one of the handsomest capitals of Europe.
Education.—Budapest is the intellectual capital of Hungary. At the head of its educational institutions stands the university, which was attended in 1900 by 4983 students—only about 2000 in 1880—and has a staff of nearly 200 professors and lecturers. It has been completely transformed into a national Hungarian seat of learning since 1867, and great efforts have been made to keep at home the Hungarian students, who before then frequented other universities and specially that of Vienna. It is well provided with scientific laboratories, botanic garden, and various collections, and possesses a library with nearly a quarter of a million volumes. The university of Budapest, the only one in Hungary proper, was established at Tyrnau in 1635, removed to Buda in 1777, and transferred to Pest in 1783. Next to it comes the polytechnic, attended by 1816 students in 1900, which is also thoroughly equipped for a scientific training. Other high schools are a veterinary academy, a Roman Catholic seminary, a Protestant theological college, a rabbinical institute, a commercial academy, to which has been added in 1899 an academy for the study of oriental languages, and military academies for the training of Hungarian officers. Budapest possesses an adequate number of elementary and secondary schools, as well as a great number of special and technical schools. At the head of the scientific societies stands the academy of sciences, founded in 1825, for the encouragement of the study of the Hungarian language and the various sciences except theology. Next to it comes the national museum, founded in 1807 through the donations of Count Stephan Széchényi, which contains extensive collections of antiquities, natural history and ethnology, and a rich library which, in its manuscript department of over 20,000 MSS., contains the oldest specimens of the Hungarian language. Another society which has done great service for the cultivation of the Hungarian language is the Kisfaludy society, founded in 1836. It began by distributing prizes for the best literary productions of the year, then it started the collection and publication of the Hungarian folklore, and lastly undertook the translation into the Hungarian language of the masterpieces of foreign literatures. The influence exercised by this society is very great, and it has attracted within its circle the best writers of Hungary. Another society similar in aim with this one is the Petöfi society, founded in 1875. Amongst the numerous scientific associations are the central statistical department, and the Budapest communal bureau of statistics, which under the directorship of Dr Joseph de Körösy has gained a European reputation.
The artistic life in Budapest is fostered by the academy of music, which once had Franz Liszt as its director, a conservatoire of music, a dramatic school, and a school for painting and for drawing, all maintained by the government. Budapest possesses, besides an opera house, eight theatres, of which two are subsidized by the government and one by the municipality. The performances are almost exclusively in Hungarian, the exceptions being the occasional appearance of French, Italian and other foreign artists. Performances in German are under a popular taboo, and they are never given in a theatre at Budapest.
Trade.—In commerce and industry Budapest is by far the most important town in Hungary, and in the former, if not also in the latter, it is second to Vienna alone in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The principal industries are steam flour-milling, distilling, and the manufacture of machinery, railway plant, carriages, cutlery, gold and silver wares, chemicals, bricks, jute, and the usual articles produced in large towns for home consumption. The trade of Budapest is mainly in corn, flour, cattle, horses, pigs, wines, spirits, wool, wood, hides, and in the articles manufactured in the town. The efforts of the Hungarian government to establish a great home industry, and the measures taken to that effect, have benefited Budapest to a greater degree than any other Hungarian town, and the progress made is remarkable. The increase in the number of joint-stock companies, and the capital thus invested in industrial undertakings, furnish a valuable indication. In 1873 there were 28 such companies with a total capital of £2,224,900; in 1890, 75 with a capital of £9,352,000; and in 1899 no fewer than 242 with a total capital of £31,378,655. Budapest owes its great commercial importance to its situation on the Danube, on which the greater part of its trade is carried. The introduction of steamboats on the Danube in 1830 was one of the earliest material causes of the progress of Budapest, and gave a great stimulus to its corn trade. This still continues to operate, having been promoted by the flour-milling industry, which was revolutionized by certain local inventions. Budapest is actually one of the greatest milling centres in the world, possessing a number of magnificent establishments, fitted with machinery invented and manufactured in the city. Budapest is, besides, connected with all the principal places in Austria and Hungary by a well-developed net of railways, which all radiate from here.
Population.—Few European towns grew so rapidly as Budapest generally, and Pest particularly, during the 19th century, and probably none has witnessed such a thorough transformation since 1867. In 1799 the joint population of Buda and Pest was 54,179, of which 24,306 belonged to Buda, and 29,870 belonged to Pest, being the first time that the population of Pest exceeded that of Buda. By 1840, however, Buda had added but 14,000 to its population while that of Pest had more than doubled; and of the joint population of 270,685 in 1869, fully 200,000 fell to the share of Pest. In 1880 the civil population of Budapest was 360,551, an increase since 1869 of 32%; and in 1890 it was 491,938, and increase of 36.57% in the decade. In the matter of the increase of its population alone, Budapest has only been slightly surpassed by one European town, namely, Berlin. Both capitals multiplied their population by nine in the first nine decades of the century. According to an interesting and instructive comparison of the growth of twenty-eight European cities made by Dr Joseph de Körösy, Berlin in 1890 showed an increase, as compared with the beginning of the century, of 818% and Budapest of 809%. Within the same period the increase of Paris was 343%, and of London 340%. In 1900 the civil population of Budapest was 716,476 inhabitants, showing an increase of 44.82% in the decade. To this must be added a garrison of 15,846 men, making a total population 732,322. Of the total population, civil and military, 578,458 were Magyars, 104,520 were Germans, 25,168 were Slovaks, and the remainder was composed of Croatians, Servians, Rumanians, Russians, Greeks, Armenians, Gypsies, &c. According to religion, there were 445,023 Roman Catholics, 5806 Greek Catholics, 4422 Greek Orthodox; 67,319 were Protestants of the Helvetic, and 38,811 were Protestants of the Augsburg Confessions; 168,985 were Jews, and the remainder belonged to various other creeds. A striking feature in the progress of Budapest is the decline in the death-rate, which sank from 43.4 per thousand in 1874 to 20.6 per thousand in 1900. In addition to the increased influx of
